"I Became a Japanese Citizen Last Year ..." (Black in Japan) | MFiles

you know I became a Japanese citizen last year and I've been told the process is easier I didn't have to change my name you never have a Japanese name that's changed plenty of context why did I do it without the fee per one listed right why would an American do something like cook trust me my friend say it my parents asked me the same question so I live in Japan 25 years about 20 years into it hi welcome to the back experienced Japan's million followers my name is Randall and the purpose of this series is to highlight the black people living in Japan who are they we share their stories remember to find us on Instagram Twitter and Facebook at the back express Japan and subscribe to this channel for with the videos on the black experience in Japan let's get into the interview my name is Henry Moreland SEALs and I'm from Charleston West Virginia I think I'm just drawn to difference let's give some context I've saw a lot of your videos and I you know I can see that people who are watching these things are sort of being exposed to Japan they may not understand exactly why people come or you know what drove people to be the way they are and therefore lead them to Japan so let me just give a little intro real quickly I grew up in Charleston West Virginia my father because of his job we lived on a public park and so in a summer I would meet thousands of people literally meet thousands of young kids their parents from all different backgrounds different jobs races creeds religions and that just sort of created me a sort of understanding that or this intuitive understanding that most people are the same regardless of race regardless of sex you know we all want the same things in life and of course I was very you know aware that I was different there are a lot of the people you know being black or just being brainy or you know various things I really that was different so sometimes that difference would mean that some kids might not want to play with me or some people I just did get along with naturally and of course being someone who occasionally kids would say I don't want to play with you or whatever cause a race or what have you I don't want anyone else feeling that way so you know sort of armed with this concept that we're all the same and also armed with this concept I don't want anyone else to feel left out I was always attracted to people different so fast-forward 14 or so years I'm in high school I meet a Japanese person for the very first time they were an exchange teacher they said in our classroom mr. Dexter's class in the corner he never said a word is made with kimchi Shibata and I would just look at him and sort of ask him where are you from and he didn't speak English but he could write it and he'd tell me where he was from and what he did and there was an exchange student her name was karate karate and she didn't speak much either but I was like she's different got a little short legs running a track with us and everything like that it was just different and I was always attractive people were different because I wanted them to feel like they fit in but they belonged because that's what I want to feel you know growing up and it's just something I'm just drawing this is what I do describe my career you probably figure out that that's what I've sort of made a living doing now this isn't a move to Japan the mover to live in Japan was kind of it just sort of happened I wasn't I was aware of Japan growing up you know I've heard about bullet trains and I'd heard about anime and you know New Japan was there you know I saw the movie gung-ho about Japan automobiles and you know they were one of they bought Rockefeller Center so I was aware of Japan but I never thought I'd be there you know I as a country boy my biggest dream was to get to New York right to see the big city where King Kong climb the Empire State Building in the World Trade Center and that kind of thing but when I got to college we had to study and I went to Harvard and we had to study mandatory one year foreign language I said well you know I knew some Japanese people growing up it seems like an interesting language let me learn it and one thing I realized once I studied or started to study is the hardest thing I've ever done I mean it was I was like why did I do this but I couldn't quit but I had to take a year and in the middle of the semester the teacher could see that I was sort of falling behind a lot of the kids in the class had either lived in Japan and their parents were diplomats or they were Japanese so it was I was a I was challenged when it came to that language the teacher said if you study for two years you'll get the opportunity to study abroad but the school will allow you to study abroad for credit and that's when I was hooked I said no mad how hard this is I'm gonna stick to it cuz I want to go overseas I want to see the world and when I got to Japan I was paired with a Japanese family I lived with them they helped me I had friends I made they help me it made Japan relatable you know some have people I loved that people I called mom and dad people have proven to me that regardless of my race they loved me and and cared for me and so those kinds of things so if you the conflicts in my life is if you mix the fact that I've met all these different people you know playing with kids and adults and realizing that you know you can find levels of acceptance they can be kind and good to you regardless of race then you meet people in this part of the world who love you regardless or they learn to love you you know through your experience with them you know I just believe that at the end of the day we all want the same things we're all on the same team and society and the rules of society or the rules of you know our upbringing sort of make us dislike certain people for whatever silly reason that we justify and since I am a part of society why not go out there and you know be that change in the world you know I know it's a cliche but it's true and be that change and it's it's it's it's made the whole difference in my life I mean the things that I've been able to see and do and the people I've been able to touch and be touched by is primarily because of that because I really do have a strong faith in people they're good they're capable of great you know inhumane things in humanity but humans are capable things and I just it's it's it's my it's my faith it's my favorite well I made the move after my second year of college right and then during that year I met my first wife and what we didn't get married then we just met we're dating and so my senior year I was here as a junior then my senior year I went back and graduated from college and so you know I'm gonna come to Japan and want to work for a Japanese company I'm gonna get married and I'm gonna start my life in Japan to see what that's like and that's what I did I have been in Japan 25 years I am the vice president of HR Affairs and legal and compliance for peytie I have been working in HR related were rolls for about 10 years before that I did finance and and most insurance companies the project management my beginning of my career I was an IT system engineer for a Japanese company called me Thani I wrote a book about it called making it in Japan it's nice no longer in print but if you want a copy I'll send you one so I been working in Japan for that amount of time in different careers different roles and Japan has taught me a lot about only being a professional but it also taught me a lot about just the the you know I think I've learned some really Keys about Japanese people and people in general because they're so different from on the outside of what Americans are and I'm from America from the South on the outside but because I have to deal with them because I have to work in this culture you know by just by a self defense mechanism to find what you have in common with them so you can relate and live and the more I live here the more I realize that we're always saying I mean there's differences but those differences like for instance Japanese on this so they ask questions they may not be extroverted but there are reasons for that it's not genetic it's not some irrational thing there's a reason for it so if you take another human and you put them in that situation they'll probably wind up the same way so I come to understand that you know people are primarily you know this gene genetics and stuff were primarily experience and exposure and my job particularly you know if I talk about HR is to give people a certain exposure a certain experience in a company so they perform well so privately my goal is when I meet someone is to expose them to something really positive so that they can make the best of their life and hopefully be good to other people when I first came to Japan to work it was I found this job by at our Career Center at the college there was a this is before the internet so I mean there was the internet but it was a book and there was a printout from a company saying they were looking for someone to work in their IT division from this Japanese company found the email address I emailed them they responded and I was able to set up a very basic Internet interview with a little camera there's this system called see you see me it was a application software application one of the first video conference applications and I interviewed with them and I got the job I get there and it's it's very Japanese everything you've seen in movies about you know the women at the time we wear uniforms most women if they were office ladies you know basically assistants or administrators they were uniforms everyone wore suits beginning of the morning everyone would gather around and do morning exercises at that time there was an exercise like this it was exercises and someone would give a speech and some two people would give speeches one on business and then one on just what I did that weekend or something something more personal and then we'd all get to our desk and start working and it was like a game of chicken nobody wanted to leave or because they were leaving so there's a lot of routine a lot of routine just subconsciously you wanted to fit in because used I for one I stood out no one but even those who aren't definite worked foreign like myself you didn't want to stand out so you you you did what your Simpa the person above you would do you mimic them because usually you didn't know what your job was you don't hire you you're you were a programmer so we hire you'd be a programmer they just hire students and they train you so you have to get that training so you stay at work so that your senpai looks favorably upon you or your cut role your division manager a department manager looks favorably upon you you know you drink with them after work even though you don't want to hang out with them you listen to their bad jokes at that time people would smoke at their desks so people were smoking you just you you realize you had to acquiesce and fit in in order to feel some level of comfort in the workplace at the same time though because I was foreign people would talk to me and have conversations they wouldn't necessarily have with others I remember one time I was suffering from real stress my stamp I was really really abusive to me emotionally and I went to another the simpler the person who was actually formally paired with me by the company and then another sim by would be someone whose senior than me but they're not you know my foremost Empire I went to him crying once I was in a we lived in company dorms and he I told him no I don't I can't I don't know if I can cut it and he said to me let's go get some sushi so he drove me in his car we went to go get sushi together he's like it's okay buddy just you know your senpai is a is a butt-brain we all know it just just cope you'll get through it in time so it's all about coping it's all about Gamma which means like just putting up with things because things will get better and they did they didn't get better they weren't as good as I wanted him to be you know I didn't make as much money I was making next to nothing out of college with credible student loans Harvard ain't cheap so I left that job to work in IT cuz no I hadn't I had a skill like a program databases and I got a job in Tokyo working for uh McAfee I was there application developer for Japan and then asia-pacific great job a lot of fun traveled all around the world but still a Japanese company there was still that level of Japanese --mess but the funny thing is that because it is a foreign business I would find myself just being excited just to be able to act foreign every now and then you know our finance head was foreign my boss was a foreigner and we sometimes get to drinking together just vent about Japan and et cetera having that was great coping mechanism you know my wife was Japanese and the frustration I had about fitting in and whatever she didn't really get it I didn't understand it also you know I didn't go to college just to just be a salaryman I wanted to change the world I wanted to help people and stuff like that so you know we just didn't have a meeting of the minds with regards to you know what the world should look like and what my role in it should be so you know eventually we we grew apart and got divorced at some point after we had a couple of kids and then I remarried still working in Japan working for companies I mean I just it became a career I was bilingual I like talking to people is really rare in iti think I just enjoyed teaching people about systems even you know I was the kind of person that we're developing a system I would also explain to you know the the users while we're doing it you do explanation sessions hang out with them I build a career for myself on being someone who engaged people for the most part so I did that and eventually I wound up doing project management because you know IT is fun and everything like that but I wanted to get out of IT engage the business and whatever and all these difficult our work forward to some degree foreign owned businesses but the employees are Japanese so the core culture is Japanese you know if you want to fit in you need to acquiesce to a degree you know work the hours speak a certain way you know being bilingual always helped for the most part but being bilingual also means that sometimes you can't get away with things you know people know you understand so that was funny stories like that and just became a career I at some point I realized after about 10 years or 12 years in this country I remembered a conversation I had with a bunch of guys when I first came they were all foreign they had all married a Japanese lives they had been in Japan like 20 years I played basketball with him in the city comas our first city I lived in working and they were I was like ask him how long you been in Japan guys I thought I was going to be here and in two years go to business school you know and be a waspy fellow or whatever and they're like well most of them had just gotten off the boat they were just like I won't visit Japan and I'm like really how long you've been here 15 years 16 years I'm like what I said so you intend to be here a week yeah a week maybe one guy one intend to be here three months and they said if Henry if you plan to be here two years you'll be here for the rest of your life and I said you're full of it no way 25 years later I'm here but I like it you know it's different it is it's different I like difference and because a lot of foreigners now are coming into Japan I can help them find a community and friendship and be able to relate to this country and vice versa helping Japanese acclimate to this changing environment that they find themselves in every single day there was a period where Japanese people were getting fatter but then they got slimmer all of a sudden don't know why I think it's the fitness kick the running kick I mean really I was first came to Japan and I was like alright how do people be so thin how do they do it I'm jealous but a little too skinny for me but then you know Burger King and McDonald's like when I first came in Domino's didn't even make a Big Mac if you ordered a Big Mac he had to wait 15 minutes while they figured out how to make one and stuff so didn't have a lot of fast food then all of a sudden I could see the difference I could see the fast-food effect on people you know people's back sides were getting bigger etc just it wasn't their guts as well and then all of a sudden about six seven years ago I saw a shift so that's one shift physically in the workplace like for instance I now work in a shared working space so to speak you know the idea that people could start their own business I remember when the after the bubble you know I got here in Japan at the bubble burst and a lot of middle-aged men said you know I'm going to got laid off in their companies and so wanting to start their own business companies look down on startups you know these companies didn't have a history they weren't prestigious it was hard they had to scrap you know to really get customers and in lot of them I didn't learn how to manage a business or a lot of failed businesses but now having a startup is considered something to be proud of even to certain people so that's changed significantly it's easier to start a business it used to get customers as a start-up business so that's there what else has changed as a foreigner you know I became a Japanese citizen last year and I've been told the process is easier I didn't have to change my name you know never have a Japanese name that's changed but even context why did I do it without the people on the list today why would an American do something like could trust me my friend say it my parents asked me the same question so I live in Japan 25 years about 20 years into it you know I bought a home in a growing city I see the city growing around me and I wanted to be active I've always been active civically socially helping people and to help my city I need to be able to vote I need to be seen as someone who has skin in the game I think I need that level of credibility and I've learned especially in my job and in life recognition is probably the most is the most powerful gift you can give to another human being because acceptance is something a lot of people don't get stepped into recognition for who you are as a person there's always some sort of fakery going on with people and that's okay you know we can't be ourselves 100% around everyone all the time we might scare people but if you can accept people for who they are and show them and make them believe you do you gain a lot and that person gains a lot and I think you really take that step towards bringing someone towards you and you towards them in the world a better place so recognition I've been in Japan a long time I recognize the people around me your country is so great that I want to contribute to it I will take my American citizenship put it to the side and say you know what it's time for me to help you guys because you're worth it that's just the way I roll what I believe so after making that decision I then looked into the process and it was pretty straightforward very straightforward you fill in some documents you get some evidence from the states of your or from your home country of your citizenship you know your birth certificate your parents birth certificate your parents marriage or in order for certificates your sibling certificates because they need to make a family register for you get that information fill in the forms about your work history your movement within Japan your movements in and outside of Japan your salary or assets etc fill in that information if you write it in the right format and give it to them and dealt in duplicate then you've been your they start processing your citizenship and after that process they interview you the interview your partner usually someone who's applying for citizenship their partner is Japanese so when my wife walked in and they're like you're not Japanese you know the interview laughs - five minutes with her because they there was really nothing they could ask her right you know because I wasn't obviously doing it to get a visa or you know yeah I was here because I love this country and I love people so it's really straightforward and the thing I'm most surprised about is I'm kind of cynical in a way I know that Japanese never see me as Japanese you know I'm not Japanese so to speak that stereotype lives in my head that Japanese will never accept me but when I tell Japanese I'm a citizen and I became a citizen I can see the change I gave a speech the other day in a moment I said I became a citizen the whole room just got like whoa you know that power of that recognition I see you and I'm putting my own skin in the game so I'm on the same boat and they may not leave they like me but they there's an impact there there's a there's a there's a there's there's an effect that happens and that's the reason I did it I didn't do it because I hate America or hate anywhere you wouldn't make you don't make a decision because in life because if someone calls you a name and you decide to change your name no you you do that you just be unhappy for rest of your life there's always gonna be bad things and I can complain about the Japanese government in taxes till the cows come home but I'm not making that decision because of any sort of negative thing I just want to contribute to the country that has given me my family and my livelihood and you know want them to believe in me so I can help I don't know really I really don't know the prerequisites I mean how long got to be in Japan et cetera I had no clue I just walked into the immigration on the immigration but the Ministry of Justice office and said I want to apply for citizenship and they looked at me and they're like okay but you need an interview you know you need a formal interview why don't you call us I'm like sure they go what country you're from like America know what Oh what and I'm like us they're like okay can you give us you're ready for in her card or whatever that card in that residence card I gave me the residence card they looked at it and I was a permanent resident already all right why do you want to be Japanese I said because I want to contribute to your country and they looked at me like are you for real but I'm like yeah yeah and so uh you know I don't know what the prerequisites were I mean it could've been likely that I didn't qualify for it and I would never have known I never asked but I think you know being American helped obviously being here for so long helped you know being a foreigner with a foreign family also helped and I remember the time when they asked me they're like so okay so you're married I'm like yes oh your wife Japanese I'm like well no but my previous wife a chef and he said well you've been married before I said marry twice before and they're like okay that's not normal I said no I'm not normal um and then they said well you know to to create your register you need to get documents from them you think they'll give you documents and coincidentally my first wife just happened to call me at that very moment to talk about like my daughter's school to or something as she's on the phone I call her I talk about that you know what I'm gonna Ministry of Justice you think you can give me this document and she's like sure okay thank you and then I called my second wife on the phone and said can you give me the dog which is like fine but they looked at me and they're like are you for real and I'm like yeah you know so I mean I've so many stories I could tell but I mean to give some context to that I talked about believing in people in the faith in people and it's even in my you know my marriages ended for you know mutual reasons you know we just didn't feel we were going to work out or whatever but even in those situations where people are mad at each other and you want to take them to the cleaners or you're mad you want to punch them through a wall or whatever you know my faith you know my faith is that this person is a lovely human being their mother loves and their fathers love them I love them at some point there's something there worth you know recognizing and not only recognizing into myself but letting them know I recognized it and even through all the fights and all the arguments all I have to say is at the end of the day I'm not broke they didn't take all my money from me I see my children I have good relations with them so once I get about my mid-thirties I sort of realize that there's something about the way I see the world that's helping me and I want to take that and help others consciously do it right and consciously turn that into something and so I started things like black professionals tokyo's or the cigar groups I started giving seminars and talks I post videos on YouTube just to help people and it's just it's it's just what I do that's what I do now I'm HR and my job is to sort of help people perform at the company and yet get paid fairly for a fair day's wage so I'm I'm enjoying that a great deal though you know people can be challenging they're lovely as I said before but they could also do terrible terrible stupid stupid things but that's part of being human you know it's you know I try to make it a better place by working with them and find it just to help why not right well like most about Japan for me personally is that I it's never theirs I can't find a comfort zone right no matter how comfortable I am there's a moment where something happens that is totally unexpected or I find myself gravitating to a new situation a group of people new company you know I mean I like learning obviously I like studying I like trying to enrich myself with knowledge and information so Japan's always provided that another thing I like about Japan it it reminds me that people are programmable like for instance you'll find people who'll say Japanese are very you know they don't do this they don't do that we group them we categorize them and it's true their socialization is such that you can sort of generalize right but the reality is that as I see them and I look at my own home country from afar I realize everyone is that way we're all conditioned you know we're all conditioned and because I'm different from these people I can see it every day and then I look at myself and go how in my condition you know what at what roadblocks do I have in my brain that prevent me from being the change I want to see in the world so because I'm also an outsider there's a lot of there's a lot of noise I can ignore like when I watch American news I get caught up in the Trump stuff and Fox News and CNN and the left versus the right and all this noise that being outside of that I can look and go wow you know they're programmed over there too or I read al Jazeera and I feel like over there people are programmed and it's sometimes the the negative aspects that programming that make us feel so far away from one another and Japan just reminds me that because people you could see the programming very clearly but I'm not part of it because I'm foreign by birth my socialization is different I can see that difference and it reminds me Henry you know these people aren't evil they're just programmed go out there and be the other programming program them a different way additionally Henry watch out for yourself you know the world can program you to where you wind up being a tool of it rather than a tool for whatever it is you're trying to get done on the planet right so that's what I love most about Japan it keeps me there not to mention one thing I love about my Japan is fact my family's here I love that about the fact that you know I'm in Japan and you know my family's here and they're safe for the most part you know my children my five girls five daughters five girls and most of them had difficulty finding boyfriends might will just don't have boyfriends they want them but Japanese young men are a little scared of them so they've traveled abroad to sort of broaden their rise in that respect but and my 16 year old does have a boyfriend Japanese young man who lived most of his life in New Zealand so obviously he's different so you know it's socialization he's Japanese but he's culture it's socialized different but it's fact my family's here brings me great joy if they weren't here or I might not be here to be honest being able to watch them grow and you know the in watching them in the sense that I appear for inthere half and in my other two my children from this married my wife is Jamaican they're black but they see themselves as Japanese meaning they were born in Japan but they're American and Jamaican and everything else to seeing all that be able to experience you know that education by having my children a family around me has made me a better person so if they were living abroad I might want to be abroad because I learned so much for my kids and you know I learned even though I don't want to learn they force you in so I'm very thankful I'm able to be around them there's not really anything I like the least I have my moments like only a love is socialized medicine here in Japan I love it it's cheap it's great however at the same time doctors in Japan sort of firstly being foreign they just diagnose you without checking you there's no foreign guy comes in your this is what your problem is um so I hate that I hate being grouped you know I hate that Japanese are socialized so group people you know your foreign or you're not kind of kind of stinks but I have confidence that if given the opportunity to meet them or talk to them or converse you know I won't be grouped they may still not like me ya know but I'm not going to be grouped so um but at honestly if I give it a some thought that would happen in America too so there's really nothing about Japan that if I compared to her other place I've group where I grew up that's that's different but one thing that I think we'll till the day I die that will bother me about this country is no matter how long I'm here if I speak Japanese to someone they will say while your Japanese is so good you homeboy droves it isn't it that's a pet peeve of like your language isn't that hard you know babies learn your language right so if you try anyone can learn it but it's just that sort of thing that no matter how long I've been here people are still programmed to think that Japan and their language is so special that's kind of annoying but you know if that's the worst I can say about this country so what you know so you know it's not too bad but seriously and I'm thinking about it as you know yes the question I'm trying to think more and more about it Japanese are very apathetic in a way there's their political system is very apathetic to it there's a lot going on in Japan that I think they need to be more civically active so to speak that kind of bothers me as I see you know see this however at the same time Japan is also the same country that modernized itself like that and defeated Russia like that and put itself on the global stage like that so I can also see the potential that once they do get active that's the reasons then once they do get active everything will change you know um so even though that's a negative I can see the positive but I know that at the end of the day Japanese are very dedicated people they once they decide something they move in that direction so once they decide to address this issue of you know lowering population etc it'll solve itself they'll solve it I'll be there to help that's the best part oh it's changed it's changed when I first came to Japan it was yaki soba because it was so bad it was like noodles I could relate to it then once that was when I was in Kyoto then I lived in Kanazawa off the Japan Sea and it was fish the fish was so good sushi and it's just people who are scared of sushi I understand when you live in a place where fish is what they do and they've been doing here for thousands of years it's it's awesome and then once I've been here long enough I started getting appreciation for tofu because tofu is this block of course can be very bland but the way they prepare it oh there's so many different ways to prepare tofu so it was great but right now my favorite food in Japan is not now bad so now there is this it's a pot it you cook it at your table you it's a pot and you have a heat and you cook it and it's you use a broth you just tofu broth or kimchi broth or show you or soy sauce broth or whatever various different bras and you put in noodles and whatever I sort of vegetables and meat you want to put it in and you cook it at your table and you pick it out with your top steaks give a little the soup and you you eat it I'm vegetarian and my mother-in-law's bed is vegan so we do tofu or kimchi base broth but I love it it specially in the winter when it's cold warms you up and you said as a family and you're eating and serving so it's it's tasty it's taste I won't put the bowl in my it's my face and drink it when I'm done with it so tasty it was hard originally it's very hard and I did it because I just wanted to test myself right there was a 2001 there was this scare about mad cow disease and he's gonna come to Japan I just wanted to see if I could live without eating meat and so I stopped I started reducing I'm gonna eat me tight and so it was easy at first because I could fill it up with like pastas and stuff so it really wasn't that hard being vegan it's kind of hard hard it's easier now because there's more options and you know things change I mean you go to a Japanese restaurant and you say I'm vegan they'll ask you or you say you're vegetarian they'll ask you are you allergic to egg you know I think also that's a lot allergies in the world now so they're you know you're there's a can you have like meat extracts and like soups and they will make you vegan food now it was really hard you had that ask questions and you know the people you're asking they don't have that context they don't they're like why's this person asking this they've never met someone who's being a vegetarian so you got to be a little understanding then people are a product of their conditioning my father told me best advice he ever gave me was that you know conditioned response all of us are conditioned response and once you realize that you can have great what do you call it like sympathy for everybody you know they're just a product of the culture so if someone has never been exposed to you saying you know I want something vegan and you get offended because they don't understand I don't know what to do you know that's the sort of wrong tack to take you know how are they supposed to know right çb con you tell them you know I I can't do it in Japan if you just tell them I don't want to eat it they weren't used to that's all but say I had an allergy and I was I have an allergy to meat and then they work okay allergy and that I understand and they would make things for you right so over the last 20 years or 18 or so years that I've been vegetarian and at times in my life vegan like I don't eat fish you know in that kind of stuff it's gotten much easier so I can go down the street to any place like even in front of this we work office there's vegan food trucks every day except for Wednesday they serve food so things do change my Blackie smears gay context I said before I raised in West Virginia primarily white state I learned very from I learned for various reasons one because I was mixing with a lot of different people and one is self defense mechanism to try to get along with people right and so I learned that ignorant isn't always a crime ignorance is just a place in the road right if you haven't been educated a certain way how would you know that Einstein's theory of relativity means X right if you didn't read this certain book how would you know where how to spell Mozambique you know it sometimes forget that a lot of us are lucky to be yet even educated know thing so I was in that culture in that environment and I meet people and I'm trying to get along with them and I'm trying to find this common humanity amongst most people and there's still people I don't like or whatever but there's still that humanity there so when I come to Japan and I'm experiencing Japanese chauvinism racism whatever to me it was it was one it's not violent it's it's the history is different so the no one's actually trying to violently there's no fear of like physical confrontation which is great not that I was physically confronted for being a certain color in America just the the noise you know I see things on TV you know or maybe a cop would stop me in my car every now and then but I was never felt really afraid that often but in Japan I don't feel afraid at all so it's it's different so you know I still feel things when people would say something like you know I don't really know about you foreigner you know I was first learning Japanese I would hear people's conversations and they'd see me coming to a restaurant they say what's that Blacky coming in here for whatever it's how I translated at the time and I'd be offended but you know I say to myself they just don't know they don't know how awesome yeah yeah self-defense of course but um my experience has been awesome you know I think I the the for the most part I think wasn't where I went to school my bilingual ability has opened doors for me being black has opened doors you know you know I've met like I know like the Barack you mean Liberation Organization right I got to meet a lot of people and that those different that those various organizations about like Japanese underclass et cetera got to speak in here great people speak because they identified with me and then of course because Japan's very homogenous and I've heard other people speak I mean you're serious about being different sometimes people attract it to the difference right for good reasons or bad reasons whatever and so you get an opportunity to help people and you get opportunity to to broaden people's minds that's also kind of cool um you know I've been stopped by the police once wasn't particularly a bad situation it happened once there's been necessarily negative but then again I just assume people are people you know gonna have bad days so I just don't I just don't internalize that really that much but it's been great as far as the black experience you know starting black professionals Tokyo bringing a bunch of different black folks together from different backgrounds different religions different walks of life different orientations etc different identities you sort of help reinforce to them that actually were all very diverse you know we decide to choose that we're black meaning that we decided to the role as part of the same group but actually we're very different and we need to do Japanese to our group we realized there we're all very different we're all the same and so that part of the experience the other building community and most of people here in Japan that I've met in the group want to be positive you know they have a goal or a drive and we create this this reinforced this this positiveness that the world can be a better place that we can make a difference that that it doesn't have to be you know that chip that's on our shoulder it doesn't have to control us doing that that's been great and I think I can do that here because the noise of a really racially charged culture back at home isn't constantly beating on us right the news telling us what we're supposed to feel and we're supposed to think I think about it all the time I read the news I'm like you know what if they wanted to there's a lot of good news in the world and a lot of negative news we read it doesn't affect our lives it's not it's not relevant to us we think it is because we've been programmed to think it's relevant to us but it's not you know what's relevant is not so much the news but what you can do about it right the news should be telling you what you can do to contribute we can do to make a difference what you can do to really shift the needle push the needle to really make our world a better place right that could be the news but instead it's about making money it's about selling adstar scaring us and so you know I just outside of all that stuff and the fact that I am bilingual by don't read all the Japanese news all the time or I get caught up in that too but the fact that I don't feel like I'm in a racially charged environment allows me to be more myself you know my personality isn't hijacked by you know all this baloney BS propaganda that tells you you know you're not you're not on the right side of the shut upset by this I'm like that's your story if I get upset all the time how am I gonna be a better father I wanna be a better friend I'm gonna be a better person if I've got this chip that you've thrown at me right I've already got my own ships and I'm going to make the world a better place so other kids don't have those chips on their shoulders but if you make it make me feel that it's okay you know I'm I should be satisfied with being angry right I don't mean bein robbed being blind me angry like you knows all this news like you should be upset about this look at this it happened be upset be upset I'm like now be happy be focused and be the change I want to be in the world and find people who will help you do that you know that's what I think allows me to really have a great black experience here I don't have I don't have one I have a have so many funny stories now if you want to talk about like that really are all about being black I'll take a story it's not funny but my wife and I were in Roppongi you just gotten out of our car and two policemen walked up to us and said of you know Roppongi is kind of dangerous can we see your ID identification my wife's Jamaican I'm American and I'm scared of police I just I'm weary of them I've had I could tell you stories but I'm wary of police officers in the state of Japan but I'm still wary of them so I know my rights I know I don't have to give them this I'll have to show them anything I'm like no you can't check my bag you can't see my identification no and they're like why I said because I know my rights I don't have to let you do this my wife and I are on a date right now we're trying to enjoy our evening please let us go we're like sorry we can't show you they keep asking doesn't like no sorry it was at your car like yes can we see your car like no like well you have nothing to hide no I have nothing to hide then why would you let us see it it's my right right so after about 10 minutes or so I'm like guys look I'm on this day with my wife come on let me go really you know so after about 10 minutes of this we leave and my wife being from Jamaica where she doesn't well in her experiences to make it she's not afraid of police officer she's not doesn't have that same sort of upbringing I do and the same sort of noise that I get from the US a lot she said to me we were in the bar right after and I'm panicking without I just told cops I'm panicking because I've never done that before in my life right I don't say there go she's like they're going to plant something in my car they're gonna find a way to put me in prison I just applied for citizenship they might not giving my citizenship I'm hyperventilating right cuz I've been conditioned and she's like baby police officers they you know they're not the most intelligent people in there in their school you know you're giving him more power than they actually have you're you you've created this boogeyman in your brain right so that was a funny story because I the end of the day we went back to the car there was no we planted in my car I got my citizenship everything is fine and so great that was a funny story for me it taught me that I've been conditioned to be afraid all right and I should be wary I should be knowledgable should be wise I think afraid to be myself oh no no no that's my son another funny story back when a dating story I was in a bar with a white friend of mine still my friend to this day and this woman walked up to me she had a Simpsons comic book or something in her hand we're in this bar and she walked with me and says I like black men will you be my boyfriend is this supposed to happen like I just won the lottery of course noise she's probably crazy and weird it doesn't matter who cares you know it doesn't happen every day that's funny um another story that happened when I first came to Japan it involves dating but it's it's not really dating I first came to Japan before I met my first wife a friend of my family's a young man I was friends with my host brother I was teaching him English and he's like let me take you to my restaurants last billiard hall that I go to regularly and I'm like sure Katya will go he takes me we get there I walk in the owner of the shops looking really mean at me as I walk in I mean this guy has like I like I shat on his sandwich or something just like on his sandwich he's just looking like I'm like holy crap but he goes in Japanese he's like where are you from I'm like from America he's like okay I'm going so I went into the restaurant wouldn't throw before the billiards place or were playing pool he eventually comes in and he's asking my friend about because you don't think I speak Japanese I did speak very well at the time and a friend tells me I'm from Harvard I went to Harvard and when he heard that he became my buddy he's like I'm used to my daughter she'll be here tomorrow and meet her off good I'm like wow that is awesome and I came back the next day I met his daughter what would his daughter more like his adopted daughter type of thing and he made us food and there's karaoke upstairs I mean we weren't drinking afterwards and so you know so that's you know it wasn't about being black but I'm sitting there going as far as he knows interesting TV you know what does he think of black people you but I know that something about my experience about me has allowed me to open a door so I'm going to focus on that right so lots of things I mean my wife and I we both look black both are color wise what cultures are very different people assume we get along we like food isn't it great to be married to people the same race I'm like huh she's Jamaican I'm a Southern America we're as different as Japanese and Americans are as far as upbringing is concerned so uh you know those are things people notice you know Japanese were asking these questions isn't it great you know we're like we're international marriage as well so is these funny moments or my wife and our kids we're speaking Japanese and people just look at us or my daughter that asked my daughter where are you from it's just say I'm from Japan and they're like no you're not where you originally from they're like I'm born in Japan I'm from Japan lots of little things that are really funny but the dating ones are the funniest ones to tell but you know there's too many for sure think about it when I see something in the news and I get upset or I hear something if someone did something I get upset I have to think to myself for a minute who is that person right I'm getting upset about you know where they've been through have I walked a mile in their shoes the answer that is usually no and if that person is bad and I want the world to be a better place I can either think logically or eeeh logically people like that need to go now people like that have been around for millions of years or thousands of years of it in what you believe they're never going to go away so you can either live your life when you run into people you don't like and then change your trajectory you know really change yourself because the world is unwelcoming or you can say guess what there's a reason these people are this way my father's whole thing about conditioned response conditioned response conditioned response and you just say you know what these people come from this is their background I need to understand that and that understanding is power and then by understanding it and then trying to figure out how to work with that you can then start to influence people right the other bit of advice my mother my mother my mother gave me and that was the best revenge is success now what that means is as a kid I took it as and people would call me the n-word or I felt marginalized because the black Kia thought it was too white or black like if I was too black or whatever it is whatever is going on you know I was too smart to them to this to that be successful they'll pick on you but just believe in yourself be successful that's why when I was eight as I'm going to Harvard I'm going to show people I'm could be the most success I'm going to the best school in the world right that type of thing you'd be successful however as I applied to my dad's advice and as I get older I realized that both those advice are complimentary in the sense that if I want to influence someone everyone wants to be successful right they want to be recognized they want to be I would say famous but the only recognize who they are right and if you can go out in your life and be successful and be recognized and show people that through your behavior your fulfilled and your happy then you can start to influence people so I understand where they are I understand where they're at so you don't feel like you're helpless in the world you you you have tools this this to change the world around you and then if they don't believe you you can't just change people with words it's with your actions you go out and you be the change you want to be that's it you'd be the change and you'd be happy you don't do it because you want to prove them wrong because when you have bad days where you don't know motivate it revenge isn't really a strong motivator when you're depressed right it can help you sometimes but not it's really about being who you want to be because that will drive you like I have to be this I have to do this and you'll be driven even when you don't want to do it you'll be successful and people say well you know what I may not agree with that person but I want their success so maybe I'll give them a little bit more you know of my little bit more time I may listen to them more because I want to be successful too so that's the best advice my parents gave me the best advice in world one as you can tell I've been talking forever so one message would be hard coming from me but I think that everyone everyone is driven by a faith right in something like your faith that you wake up in the morning and the world will be there or you believe in God or you believe in people like myself or whatever it is they have this faith right and when you go out of your meeting with people you're engaging these faiths maybe not directly but indirectly right and so to get things out of people right to get what you need out of life to get people to accept you or believe in you or follow you and I I spent a lot of time trying to develop leaders so I'll talk a lot about following though that's not the key to everyone's life you need to understand that and and recognize that the people making these decisions you disagree with are doing a base on faith and people don't give up their faith you can't tell someone who's believed and felt the power of God you can't convince them or shame them into not believing if they truly believe right you can't do it right but you can accept their faith and try to understand what that faith comes from and then you can start to relate to that person and then you start to influence that person and the best thing about influencing people is those people also have people they're able to influence all right people say pass it forward whatever I don't really mean I don't mean that but if you could influence one person who has a family or a group of people that they can also influence it's you can do it but unfortunately the world in the news clips that we see make us feel that they're just bad people and there's no way they've changed them and they're just ignorant or they're just racist and they're never gonna change that's not true my host father before I went to this fella is home I found out later he was racist he did not want me in his home he said black people robbed that's what I heard from an American and they just steal things and whatever and I didn't know this but three months into my homestay he said to me he confessed that that's what he believed and my host sister and my mother my host mother told him you're an idiot he's want to come to this house you know and he apologized to me and he said you're my son and he treated me like his son so when people say someone's racist my faith tells me that's just a place in the road right with the right experience people can change right it is any influence people so he wound up influencing people to the point to where I have friends who are now he was he was the vice president of a company and now I know presidents of companies because of him because he influenced him you know right on their yachts and stuff not that yachts are success but I have now I have their ear now people I would not have if I just said he's a race that he has no value right but no he's a racist he's a lost soul now if he decided to come at me with a knife or something then hey I draw well I did this and then we can't be friends but everything's a place in the road you know and especially that person gives you an in then take advantage of it you know take advantage of it and recognize them and empower them make them feel good about being who they are and then you can um you can make a difference but our anger doesn't really make anything right we do it derails us it derails there's nothing wrong being angry I'm angry a lot but you got to realize that they can just sabotage you if you let it and so you just have to find people who are going to reinforce you and help you understand how you can make this world more yours right then it may have been in the past okay well if you're currently residing in to both people come in to Japan when I first came to Japan I heard it was racist and I was scared I was actually very scared and because my most of my white friends in college were like Japan's racist they don't like black folks I've heard stories but my teacher said go speak to this young man he just came back from Japan I think of names Bashir or something black fella he's like they're great I'm like wait a second you told me they're great everyone tell me their races what's going on here right something doesn't compute but it's all about who you meet like if someone stares at you on the train or someone looks at you or shows your attention and it offends you a little bit cuz you're you're a human being you're a husband stating you take that as an opportunity right they're interested there looking and there you say sorry there's something you find interesting you know be friendly you know your your perhaps the first time someone has seen someone like you and you have a great influence in that another influence in the world influence on your own life if you do something positive this person may wind up being your doctor something hey you know our recommending you or bringing food to your house and stuff like that like you've mentioned before people in your neighborhood right bring you things and stuff like that so take these opportunities when people look at you or they approach you try not to be offended try to understand sometimes that they're coming from a place of ignorance and you're that book right to allow them to only help themselves also help you people who are thinking of coming to Japan and don't be afraid there's always gonna be a lot and if you're worried about not having a lot of brothers and sisters around to talk to there's a lot of us and we're more than happy to help you so just just contact us black professionals Tokyo or whatever there's more than enough support not only black folks but white folks and Japanese folks right bring you on board help you you know mayor of my city lived in the States you wouldn't know by looking at who lived in the states he's singing a gospel choir he did a lot of volunteer work met a lot of people of color and in Spanish and Hispanics and stuff and in Texas and I was a picture of him on Facebook where his with his college roommates and they're all like Indian and Saudi Arabia in black or whatever so there are Japanese who have been exposed to different things you never know so try to have an open mind those who are already here I guess advice is you know just have hope you know just this have hope that's believed there you know I think with you're going to say your series I think is is is is even to myself has been here very long it's very cynical been very inspiring that there are people out there who who I can relate to not maybe they might not become my friends but I don't feel so alone I don't feel so weird now being here or being different or whatever so you'll find a place where you can belong and I personally am the type of person you like to create community so you know hey contact me but just know that there is a place for you here where there's temporarily or forever but you have to have faith and hopefully by meeting people and having more positive experiences than negative your faith will grow over time but remember that your faith whether it's in God or humanity or whatever didn't start out of nothing it came from somewhere came from experience came from reinforcement so just keep believing and keep trying to reinforce that faith and I think you'll be okay mm-hmm well I've been divorced twice right and I've never had an issue with seeing my children you know I didn't pay any sort of alimony or anything like that I wasn't taken to the cleaners my in-laws rags and loss treat me with respect even afterwards it's taught me people can change right they can change and so and someone will say but but I know Japanese they do this I said but I've lived this experience right I can count I can't count on me at our meeting of my friends or social people have heard who have lost their children or their wife ran off or they they they they you know Japanese swindled them and took them and these things happen to them and their their suffering and and it's unfortunate and I'm there for them but they can change maybe not that one person but as a culture so they ever think that you know Japanese are this because if you said before my faith has made me commit to certain ways of communicating that have you know I reap the benefits of so I've learned that and because your foreign and your minority in a country where it's very homogeneous sometimes you can feel overwhelmed that this countries never want to change oh my goodness what people do right they do that's why I don't get too cynical about this country because people can't change I mean I am HR I have to believe people can change and grow or I would be a hypocrite every day I go into the office and it's just I wouldn't be working here if I had to do that I'm empathetic I can relate to people like that no matter who they are like you know Will Rogers I think you were saying we were worried Rogers think it was Will Rogers never met a man he didn't like right I've met people I didn't like like they've done things that aren't acceptable right but I can relate to them because I'm human too I mean I want to accept that I can relate to him I can relate and it really helps I've been able to bridge things not for myself but other people like I love being that communicator to help bridge the gap that's what kept my career that's why I have a career I work at a start-up where they're trying to become a much you know a company and go public and all this type of thing and they have staff who are foreign and staff where a Japanese and the executives who are Japanese and foreign and they're trying to bring them all together under a common vision and I'm someone who can relate to anybody you know I'm just I'm not blowing my own horn but that's it this was my superpower so it's been helpful and if I can be a value to people with that so the goal is for me is to be a value to people if I can help someone with that because not everyone can do it right so I want to show people how it's done or help them benefit from it because some of us are gifted in certain ways and I think you know why not share that and wanna help people with it you know the country itself the idea that all Japanese are if you ever watch Japanese art they all Japanese are one race that's a fallacy it's not true right culturally historically it's just not true Japan to become a modern nation had to sort of adapt a lot of different like you know Kyushu and in northern Japan I Leitrim sort of cultures into this common thread that is Japan you know this what they consider themselves a colored race sort of trying to become modern right so you know we assume errs like to say doom and gloom in the future global warming whole new ozone layer etc and that's possible but Japan is changing it's becoming more diverse it needs to become more diverse and when it decides to deal with a crisis to a to to use that and to put that under the banner that's what's going to happen I mean it's what's happened now it's not inevitable anything can happen but that's what he did in the past you know necessity is the mother of invention and with necessity Japan has taken its its culture and transformed it now even when they transformed they're still like under class III Korea in a certain way which is unacceptable right as a culture as a people I talk to people who don't understand even why they're racist against Koreans there's a door to open right or the way they treat Barack you mean right they still see them as but I could mean they're they're underclass and even people who Tokyo don't understand it but they're still socialized to see them as different so there's still those issues Japan will always have issues every country has them but the challenges of aging population diversity lower you know women not having kids this whole gay marriage thing whatever all these issues you know to maintain its place in the world it will change every country does find the way to do it in Japan's position in a way you know and position in a way to where you can take advantage of the fact it is Japan and it's it's exotic to people it always has been and probably always will be I study Japanese history in Chinese history so I can like it's big dude what where Chinese whatever remainder so I studied Asian history but it was different it was different but my father was an American history professor for a while when I was growing up so I'm when Japan was Buddhist which is still it's but I mean when Buddhism was the thing you had different classes of people and the people who work with blood and leather and things of that nature were considered the untouchables because if you oversimplification blood is also very dangerous right and it cracks disease and vermin and things of that nature so these people would be relegated living by the rivers and through history they would you know you can still sort of trace families back so they became the underclass barak you mean or the earth or whatever term they used at the time but these underclass of people and this still exists today right you still people who can't get jobs because if you find out that they were Baraka P you know they like oh they're those from the underclass they're under educated they're there they're there they're they're criminals or they're just you know they you you might want your daughter to Mayor Baraka mean because they couldn't get a job and they don't have a future and things of that nature so um some of them some of the groups of Baraka me sort of acquaint themselves with African Americans so when I was here in 94 the barakamon Liberation Organization or a member found out that I was you know this black student at this Center and asked if I could visit them it's been the weekend sort of understanding what they do and it was for of like a sort of a propaganda tour he showed me they showed me their various aspects of their lifestyle and things of that nature but I'm just saying that Japan has its racial or racial issues that they have so I'm saying that are they going to embrace all this diversity and make it work and Beyond a utopia no but they're gonna find a mate away a way to make it work oh yes yes yes why work where I work do you know what the average salary independence the average household income is it's $40,000 average right I know this because in general working in insurance companies you have to understand how much people make to create tables and stuff of that nature anyway it's relatively low given the cut the cost of living in Japan the idea people have of Tokyo and things of that nature so what that means is they're just so typically the goal of a lot of people is to make $100,000 I'm making hundred thousand dollars I'm successful a lot of people I'm going to make it right so just so people know this there's a lot of Japanese who don't know how they're gonna pay for college who don't go to college you know how they're going to save because they don't make enough you know the the interest rates are so low right they they work part-time jobs they're contract employees they don't see the brightness in their future so a lot of times when you thinking about I want Japanese get off starett but then be proactive and do things that they don't see a lot of hope right so you know companies like ours who do like FinTech you know trying to provide people with financial instruments to invest and buy and do things like they're trying to give people the working class in Japan right power because there's a lot of underserviced people in this country you don't see they're not the commercials you don't see being like sold on in the news you know these people need a voice now these are the same people who may be ignorant of foreigners right but if you help them you empower them for their future you become their ally because we're all allies at the end of the day they just think I'm their enemy they've been programmed to think this but my company goes out and does this tries to go out and make a change in these people's lives and they realize a foreign company did it right that's what you don't see you know there's a lot of a lot of us as foreigners are working to contribute to the betterment of Japan's Japan so that other foreigners don't suffer discrimination right so to speak so Japan isn't all bullet trains and no guns and and salary men in business suits there are people who live with their parents because they lost their job in 2008 and there's three generations living and they can't pay for you know they want to put mom in a home but don't have enough money and their pension isn't covering enough and they want to work past 60 to make ends meet but they can't because companies are cutting their salaries there's so many issues that I think we as foreigners are working on a lot of people are working in companies to address these issues but people don't see them right so that's one of the reasons I think a lot of the people said why are foreigners in Japan if it's racist because we're making a difference and we can see it and we can feel it every day right so that's that's the part of being here that makes it worth it there will be Japanese children whom who never know my name who will go to a park and see a plaque they're put down by a company I used to work for and sakura trees that will last forever and go wow this company this is a foreign company but they did this for us right providing hope to people so I so someone calls me a name every now and then so what who cares look what I've been able to do and add value so that's what they don't see and if you get the chance to see that and know that you know we're making that kind of difference and you can make that kind of difference meaning you know people listening to this can make that kind of difference depends a great place to be they need us we all need people different from us whether from its racial or I think primarily experiencial because racism is a myth I mean we're not different race we're all the same race we just look different because of where we regionally from or whatever we're all one race so uh but our star experience because of race and things that make you a different experiences different cultures different mindsets so that experience all difference right the experiential diversity gives you you know it helps you like someone has a different experience that helps you deal with a new situation you never dealt with before so that experience like they got scarred I'm black you know you should recognize me know if I don't add any value to their life why does she care about me right if I disrespect them what should they respect me it's it's not about it's about it's about the contribution I can make to someone else's life like my wife loves me because I may be a cool guy but because I contribute to our life I give it meaning and purpose not all of its purpose and meaning but I add to it right my kids love me because I give them make them feel safe and loved and all that kind of stuff so you need to add value so I think that they need people who are different so they can sort of use our experience and leverage that to help them out of the challenges they're facing in order for them to see that experience we have to be able to relate to them and it's unfortunate that unfortunately some of them are sheltered just like we are in a way but they're sheltered and you have to try a little harder but I don't mind trying because the results been awesome I can't complain I mean I do I'm human I complain okay but but in general talk to myself you know most of time I don't I don't complain so I've bought three houses in Japan again in my life I don't own them all at the same time but I've bought homes why because I felt that if I get hit by a bus so I want my family to have a house you know and the way it works is if I get hit by a bus they get the house right the house is paid for and everything so um the process has been pretty straightforward like the de citizenship thing you have a certain salary and you have to be working the company for a certain amount of time back in the old day that need a guarantor and my wife with Japanese she was my guarantor so that worked but this time I bought an actual house I bought like apartments before my bought a house and you know I didn't I used the system for instance I didn't pay a down payment and how that kind of money to do a down payment even I have a great job now I mean whatever I don't have that kind of money I got kids I got bills to pay so I'm I said well I can't pay that down payment so what can you do for me and so you find ways to work around the system so rather than give it and pay a down payment the real estate agent would help me get a loan to pay the down payment that would be lumped in with the mortgage um but I looked for homes in places where I thought the value would go up now because I said I'm empathetic and I'm listening to people I'm watching people trying to understand what drives them all the time a lot of times I have to accept the fact that it's because I believe something doesn't make it true so and I work in insurance companies so I use data I look at data and I go oh this place is going to grow the data says it's not forecasting it's not my ego is just a data and humans have been around forever and everything's repeated itself so you watch things and buy homes and you know you sell it for a little more and you bought it but this time there was always no matter where I live I always wanted to sort of contribute to a community I wanted to work live help build a community and where I live is not a new city but they train line that Skoob Express line it's about 10 11 12 years old now and I've been there for about 10 years now so the train line is pretty it's relatively new and I said if I move into that area I can watch the city grow and I can contribute to it and so participate at the ground level and whatever so I investigated try to figure out where was growing whatever looked around found lucked out - a great plot of land use the same gimmick you know I'm not putting a down payment you know I get it lumped in with the mortgage etc but pretty straightforward you know you you apply to the bank most banks would want to give me alone cuz I was foreign this is what the real estate agents told me regardless of my salary so certain banks the big banks work with me and I just pretty straightforward a lot of documentation building a house is really tedious because they're you know Japan there's really detail-oriented lots of meetings lots of back and forth but how does it really worth much so really if you're gonna buy something to sell or invest in you want to buy land when I have good land and I've looked out where I live now land prices gone well it was really great investment but wasn't the point I wanted to live in a nice place and then when I first purchased housed in the past it was right after the bubble and ended right the bubble and so things were how is that were like a million dollars we're now 200 grand 300 grand so I just buy an old place and it's fix it up you didn't ten thousand dollars to fix it up and you'd have a nice home for your children in your family so I'm you know I bought two houses and then a two apartments sold those and then now I live in I got all my city best thing in Japan you should be there everyone should be there no no no DPR back then I didn't have PR I had to work you yeah I had a depends on the bank my friend says let's be honest if you have a truckload of money in a bank right you have trouble little money in a bank like you have 10 grand or 20 grand or 30 Road money safe in a bank that bank will probably work with you regardless okay but if you don't have that you don't have a lot of money yeah they're gonna go by the book the fpr but there won't be a bank that may work with you you know but when I first bought my first home I didn't have a PR this is before the the crash I had a working visa let's see was by home you know I believe that there would be a bank that would work with me you know and there were I think because of the economic crisis in 2008 2009 they got a little stricter so I think you do need to have a PR but you can work around that just like they say you have to have a down payment I've never had to pay a down payment so you work around it you know by trying to ask people in a very friendly way that they'll Carnegie principle start in a friendly way what is uh you know what can I do what can you do for me I really want to buy this home right just feel to them Sumer Singh Summa st. get one language helps being able because I mean people are conditioned response thank you that can I give a shout-out to my father dad mom thanks the conditioned response thing Japan is a great place to Louis that cuz people war condition if I vow to somebody they bow in response if they don't their route like it I know if someone doesn't even doesn't even like me I know I can make them eat crow by bowing now they have to bow but they don't bow they've illustrate everyone I'm so angry I'm so out of control that I can't control my anger oh you know it's you know it's a conditioned response so by speaking certain things we've got to respond a certain way you know I'm saying like trying to get someone to say no right trying to get them to confirm are you saying no are you saying no are you saying no are you saying no and they don't say no eventually they'll say well maybe let me check so example bought my home bought my land there's a plot of land behind my house I didn't know wasn't part of my plot it's just this plot of land that was overgrown and we looked at it my mother-in-law likes to farm I said you know what if he bought that turned into a farm it would help the whole neighborhood because it was over growing and animals and stuff were there and it was really a maiya Waku in english what is that the burden or a problem for my neighbors so I said maybe I can buy it so what did the bank and said can i buy this land and they're like well you already have a home we usually don't sell land for for you know let me give mortgages for investment property it's not investment property I said there's a may Walker to my neighbors and the bank manager said you know what okay we'll do it now I didn't have I don't have a lot of money in the bank they'll get wrong I might have had my salary you know I live paycheck to paycheck must be honest but I had my mortgage I've been paying it and they made it they made they made up I don't think there's actually a rule saying they couldn't do it they just said that's a rule so there's a written rules and unwritten rules in Japan so it's a whole faith thing if you believe the system's stacked against you you're gonna go into the bank and think they're not gonna do it anyway right but if you believe there's a way a little bit of entitlement mindset there but they there has to be a way you usually find one I get truckloads of credit cards unfortunately I don't do them anymore and that's one thing payday also does as well sort of replacing credit cards a lot of Japanese can't get them either they don't make enough money their job didn't work long enough at the same job so they're suffering in the same way they may from a racial standpoint let me see you as the enemy but we're allies here we have the same problem kind of just the same issue right if you can just bridge that look at how much more powerful you are as a group right so that's my thing I think I find me on guess YouTube stills improvement seminars because I'd like post little things or on LinkedIn I don't broadcast you know this is what's going on with me you know I'm too busy living my life to broadcast it to be honest and also me I don't think anyone's interested if you're not I don't think it was interested in what happens to me on a day-to-day basis so I don't post so if I'm gonna LinkedIn or I'm on Facebook of course and of course my sales improvement seminars because I think if people give me ideas on things they'd like to hear then I make videos for them you know so they can you know I can add value that way because they you to Tonia's but so many hours in the day and I can't meet but so many people sales improvement seminars on YouTube and then in LinkedIn Henry Moreland seals you can find me our Facebook Henry more than seals is about that - sorry GK I'm one of the older cats I'm not really into the social media doesn't roll off my tongue you know you can find me there thank you so much for watching if you or someone you know would like to be featured send us a message through our Facebook page or Instagram at the back of JP or via our website black xjp calm thank you so much for watching we'll see you next time bye for now [Music] you

Channel: The Black Experience Japan

Views: 179,280

Rating: 4.9114313 out of 5

Keywords: i became a japanese citizen last year, black in japan, mfiles, the melanated files, melanated files, the black experience japan, black experience japan, lfie in japan, black in japan interview, black in asia interview, being black in japan, black men in japan, what's it like being black in japan?, henry moreland seals, japanese citizen, becoming a japanese citizen, twenty five years in japan, i've been here for twenty five years

Id: YPwIpeyU8MU

Length: 75min 14sec (4514 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 12 2019